1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-75298 discloses a charging connector with a means for retaining and accommodating a terminal fitting at a predetermined position in a housing. The terminal fitting has a wire connecting portion crimped to an end of a wire and a spacer formed of a sleeve made of resin and mounted around the wire connecting portion. The charging connector is structured such that the terminal fitting is inserted into a terminal accommodating chamber of the housing together with the spacer and the terminal fitting is locked to the front end of the spacer and the rear end of the spacer is locked to a rear end part of the terminal accommodating chamber. The terminal fitting is retained and accommodated at a predetermined position of the terminal accommodating chamber of the housing.
In the charging connector as described above, the end of the wire needs to be sealed by, for example, a heat shrinkable tube. Specifically, the heat shrinkable tube is fitted on the outer periphery of the wire connecting portion after the wire connecting portion is crimped to the end of the wire, the heat shrinkable tube is set in a heating apparatus and heated to be thermally shrunk, and adhesive applied to the inner peripheral surface in advance is melted and bonded to the outer peripheral surface of the wire connecting portion, whereby the end of the wire is sealed. The spacer is mounted thereafter.
The heat shrinkable tube is so formed that an upper part of the inner peripheral surface comes into contact with the upper surface of the wire connecting portion and hangs down by its own weight. If the heat shrinkable tube is heated in this state, the adhesive, particularly the adhesive on the upper part of the inner peripheral surface flows down to a lower side while the adhesive is melted and the heat shrinkable tube is gradually contracted in diameter. When the heat shrinkable tube is contracted in diameter until the inner peripheral surface of the heat shrinkable tube comes into close contact with the outer peripheral surface of the wire connecting portion, the amount of the adhesive may become insufficient on the upper side of the inner peripheral surface and a sealing function may be impaired.
The technology disclosed by this specification was completed based on the above situation and aims to enable an end of a wire to be reliably sealed over the entire circumference.